Carpe Diem #290, Tooroo (lantern)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are on our way through early-autumn and today we have an extra-ordinary prompt, because I think it's not especially for autumn, but it's really a classic kigo for autumn. Today our prompt is Tooroo (lantern) and it's referring to the custom to make handcut lanterns to enjoy the moonlight. As you maybe know the Japanese say that the autumn moon is the most orgeous moon of all seasons and they tried to copy that moonlight by handcut made lanterns (Tooroo).

Source: Tooroo

So Tooroo is somewhat like watching the moon in autumn.
In the Edo period, they put cut-out lanterns (tooroo) on the shelf for the ancestors and the eaves of the home and enjoyed them in the moonlight as an offering to the ancestors.

cut-out lanterns
to enjoy the moonlight in autumn -
croaking frogs

croaking frogs
disturbing the autumn night peace -
scattered full moon

lightning the lantern
the sun hides behind the horizon -
a moonless night

Not very strong haiku I think, especially the first and the third, that second I think is very nice, but that's not up to me to decide. That's up to you my dear haijin, visitors and travelers.

I hope you like this episode and that it will inspire you all to write and share your haiku on Tooroo. This prompt will stay on 'till September 7th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will publishe our new episode, Bon (Bon Festival), later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). !! Tooroo is open for your submissions today at 7.00 PM (CET) !!

Carpe Diem #289, Hatsu Arashi (First Storm)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are continuing our journey through the classical Japanese kigo for autumn. We are busy with kigo for early-autumn and today we have a prompt that has to do with the weather of autumn. Today we share haiku on Hatsu Arashi (first storm). Hatsu Arashi refers  usually to the wind, storm from end of August till mid-September, but not as strong a storm as a real typhoon of the mid-autumn season.
As was preparing this episode I ran into the colors of the season as they were mentioned in the Erh Ya, one of the earliest Chinese dictionaries. According to the Erh Ya the color of autumn is white, because the Spirit of autumn is clear and white. (Green is the color of spring, Red the color of summer and Black the color of winter). Isn't it a nice story? Season colors?

Source: Hatsu Arashi

caught in the first storm
the haiku poet and his beloved -
roses left behind

roses left behind
autumn romance rough disturbed
the first storm

the first storm
scatters the colorful leaves -
Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple
her leaves colored like a rainbow
caught in the first storm


A lovely autumn cascade ... the first storm scattered a romantic rendez vous. Autumn ... my season ...

This prompt will stay on 'till September 6th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Tooroo (lantern), around 7.00 PM (CET). !! Hatsu Arashi (first storm) is open for submissions later on today around 7.00 PM (CET) !! I am in the nightshift so I don't know if I am on time. That's the reason that I already have posted the Carpe Diem episode for September 5th.

Carpe Diem #288, amanogawa (Milky Way)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I am impressed ... what a wonderful haiku I have read on Southard's first Special ... I am so glad that you all like the haiku by Southard and that you all even have tried to write your haiku in the classical style as Southard always did. I know that sometimes it isn't easy to write haiku with the 5-7-5 syllables structure, because it looks sometimes artificial. To me that's the reason why I don't write my haiku in that classical way ... it looks to artificial and counted, but of course it's a challenge to write haiku in that classical way.

Today our prompt is Amanogawa (Milky Way) and it's really a kigo for autumn, because the Milky Way is seen best in this time of year. There are a lot of stories about the Milky Way. I love to share a little bit of those stories here (with thanks to: http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_astronomy.htm )

The Milky Way:   Was much venerated by the Maya. They called it the World Tree, which was represented by a tall and majestic flowering tree, the Ceiba. The Milky Way was called the Wakah Chan . Wak means "Six" or "Erect". Chan or K'an means "Four", "Serpent" or "Sky". The World Tree was erect when Sagittarius was well over the horizon. At this time the Milky Way rose up from the horizon and climbed overhead into the North. The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as the tree of life where all life came from. Near Sagittarius, the center of our galaxy, where the World Tree meets the Ecliptic was given special attention by the Maya. A major element of the World Tree include the K'awak Monster, a giant head with a kin in its forehead. This monster was also a mountain or Witz monster. A sacrificial bowl on its head contains a flint blade representing sacrifice, and the Kimi glyph that represents death. The Ecliptic is sometimes represented as a bar crossing the major axis of the world tree, making a form that is similar to the Christian Cross. On top of the World Tree we find a bird that has been called, the Principal Bird deity, or Itzam Ye or Vucub Caquix. There is also evidence that shows the Sun on the World Tree as it appeared to the Maya at Winter Solstice. 

During the months of winter, when the so-called "Winter" Milky Way dominates the sky, it was called the "White Boned Serpent." This part of the Milky Way passed overhead at night during the dry season. It is not brilliant like the star clouds that dominate the sky North of the equator during the months of Summer, but observers at dark locations will easily see the glow. Here the Ecliptic crosses the Milky Way again, near the constellation of Gemini which was the approximate location of the Sun during Summer Solstice. It is possible that the jaws of the White-Boned Serpent were represented by the K'awak monster head. The Great Cycle in the Maya Cosmology, is a fifth and final cycle in the 26,000-year Precession of the Equinoxes, except that the Mayans measured it from the Winter Solstice instead of the Spring Equinox. "On 13.0.0.0.0, the December solstice sun will be found in the band of the Milky Way. We can call this an alignment between the galactic plane and the solstice meridian. This is an event that has slowly converged over a period of thousands of years, and is caused by the precession of the equinoxes. The place where the December solstice sun crosses the Milky Way is precisely the location of the "dark-rift in the Milky Way...'Xibalbá be' - the road to the underworld." , which the Maya called the Mouth of the Crocodile, (or jaguar-toad); the Crocodile Tree being the Milky Way itself.

OK ... enough knowledge about the Milky let's do some haiku composing.

out stretched river
at the deep blue nightsky
points out the way

the path of heaven
lighted by thousands of stars -
Amanogawa

Well I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope it inspires you to write your haiku and share it with us all.

This prompt will stay on 'till September 5th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode, Hatsu Arashi (First Storm), later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). !! Amanogawa is now open for your submissions !!

Carpe Diem's Freestyle #3

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

To give you all the space to share your haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka and all other Japanese kinds of poetry I have launched a little while ago the Carpe Diem's Freestyle feature. As from now on I will try to publish a Freestyle episode once a month.

Freestyle is what it is ... just share your poetry without a given prompt, maybe you have read a wonderful haiku, or did you write an awesome haiku but it didn't suit to the prompts given. Then this is the place to share that poetry with Carpe Diem.
Feel free to share your poetry and enjoy the publishing here on the world wide web.

I love to share here a haiku by Basho, which I love, and the respons I gave on that same haiku by Basho. It's all about a little humor in haiku and I don't know if I have touched that humor with the revised haiku.

Humor ... was, and is still, part of haiku. Basho also used humor in his haiku. Humor isn't my thing to use in haiku. In some of my haiku it's possible that there is a touch of humor, but I did that unconscious and not on purpose.

Basho's next haiku has this humor very clearly. He has written this at Ryumon Falls at the southern foot of Mount Ryumondake in Yoshino, province of Nara. This is the area with Japan's most notable display of cherry trees. This verse uses a comparative technique: Basho is comparing how a person who is drunk stands (or doesn't stand) with the shape of a waterfall and with the way branches loaded with blossoms hang down.

sake nomi ni    katara n kakaru    taki no hana

drinking friends

to talk I'll hang over like this

a waterfall of flowers

Well I have written a few haiku in the sense and tone of this one by Basho. I only can hope that it has also a little bit of Basho's humor in it.

on the way home

drunken sailors bend over

to vomit

it's a strange sight

like a waterfall they fall

drunken sailors

Ah! that sight

a waterfall of flowers

when vomiting

Well I hope you liked it and I love to invite you all to share your own Freestyle here with us. This Freestyle-episode will stay on 'till September 30th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will try to publish that same day the new episode of Freestyle.

Carpe Diem Special #55, O. Mabson Southard's "chanting, the pond's frogs ..."

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I have to rectify something. I have written the name of Southard wrong. The right way to write his name is O. Mabson Southard (instead of Mabson O. Southard), so my apologies for that. Today our first Special by Southard is on.

Maybe you know the famous haiku by Basho about the "old frog pond":

an old pond
frog jumps in -
the sound of water

I think that evry haiku poet has written at least one haiku about frogs or a frog pond. I myself have written (at least one) haiku about frogs:

frogs jump in -
the sound of rain far away
thunder and lightning

And I am sure thata I have written other 'frog'- haiku, but that's not the issue today. For this first Special of September I have chosen the following haiku by O. Mabson Southard:

Chanting, the pond's frogs ...
among the lilies' dark pads -
the twinkle of stars

Frogs have always been a favorite topic for haiku poets (as we have seen above) and Southard is not without his frog haiku. These samll creatures that are so often ignored in our busy day-to-day lives often fill the night with enchanting music. In this haiku, Southard is painting the image of the frogs' song at night, with the stars splashed across the heavens and reflecting from the pond. (Source: Millikin University)

As you all know the goal for the Specials is to write a haiku in the same tone, sense and spirit as the one given. This month we have another challenge in the Specials. Southard wrote all his haiku in the classical 5-7-5 structure, so the inspired haiku has to follow that 5-7-5 syllable structure. Not an easy task I think. For sure to me it will not be easy, because I write my haiku without that structure. Well ... I am looking forward to your inspired haiku. Have fun ...

This Special will stay open for your submissions 'till September 4th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode (hopefully) around 7.00 PM (CET). That will be, Amanogawa (Milky Way).

Carpe Diem's Imagination #6, Pablo Picasso's "The Seated Man".

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It’s a little while ago that I published an episode of Carpe Diem’s Imagination, because of lack of time, but I have taken the decision to publish Imagination once in a month starting today with (in my opinion) an extraordinary painting by Pablo Picasso it’s titled “the seated man” and I used it in one of the novels I have written. It had a important place in that novel and now I love to use it for Carpe Diem.s Imagination.

The goal of Imagination is to use the photo, picture or (as today occurs) a painting for you inspiration. Say it’s a kind of painting with words ... so have fun, be inspired and share your Imagination-haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem.

Pablo Picasso's "The Seated Man"

The Seated Man is a late painting by Picasso and as I can recall from my lessons of Art-history when he painted this he was ill and sat in a wheelchair.

I waoder if you, my dear haijin, visitors and travelers, can write a new haiku inspired on this painting. So it's a challenge.

My attempt:

in the backyard
in the shadow of the willow tree
a seated man

a seated man
in deep devotion to Mother Nature
in the backyard

Not a strong one I guess, but I love it anyway.

This episode of Imagination is open for your submissions until September 30th 11.59 AM (CET). Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with our haiku-community.

Carpe Diem #287, Shinryoo (new coolness)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful start we have made with this new Carpe Diem month full of the classical Japanese kigo. I have read wonderful haiku on our first 'kigo' and I have read haiku written by a few new contributors which are really nice. I hope that Carpe Diem will grow further and that we can share our love for haiku around the world wide web.

Today our prompt is Shinryoo (new coolness) which refers to the decreasing of the temperature from the heat of summer to the coolness of autumn. For sure not an easy task to write a haiku with 'new coolness' as kigo, but here I go ...


departing summer
the air is becoming cooler
coloring leaves

under the willow
hiding for the heat of summer
the new coolness

new coolness -
children playing with golden leaves
in the autumn sun


Not a very strong series on Shinryoo, but in these I sense autumn ... I hope you liked it ... Have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with our community (and the world) here at Carpe Diem.
This prompt will stay on 'till September 3rd 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our first Special for September, a haiku by our featured haiku-poet Mabson O. Southard, later on today around 7.00 PM (CET). I hope that I will be on time, because I am in the nightshift so don't be sad if our new episode is not on time.
!! Shinryoo (new coolness) is open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) !!